3 Ways To Wake Up Happier
Every day has its own sets of challenges, each of those challenges are as unique as the day that precedes it. And resolutions aside, you have got to be rearing and ready to go at dawn.
In my mind, I imagine myself waking up to the soft chirping of birds. As I stretch luxuriously on my bed sheets, the sun casts a soft glow on my skin transforming me into this beautiful Nubian goddess (yep! A girl can dream). Errrhhh but that ain’t the case.
Now in reality if my noisy alarm doesn’t jar me awake at 5:00 am, then it would be my hyper active son who would simply put on the lights and the deed is done. Forget looking like a Nubian goddess, I’ll be lucky if I don’t have dried spittle on my face.
In between the time I wake up and 7:30 am, breakfast has to be prepared, the kids have to be bathed, dressed, fed and ready for school and so do I. So how do I stop the morning from being chaotic? Other than trying to squeeze in too many tasks into such a small time slot, I doubt there’s much you can do (and if you find a way around this please share, you will be saving a lot of mums). But you can ease the waking up process and I have got just the game plan for it.
1. Get rid of the alarm clock
Or at least change the alarm ringtone to something melodic and soothing (I use my regular ring tone). That sudden sound that most regular alarms have can throw you out of balance. I mean think about it. that’s the first sound you hear when you wake up. So change the alarm tune and whatever you do, do not hit the snooze button. You may feel like you are getting a few more minutes of sleep but in reality, you are just wearing yourself out more.
2. Prep from the night before
Our days are usually packed but instead of hitting the sack at the first opportunity, taking out an extra hour to prep for the following day can give you a better night’s rest. This would in turn leave you better refreshed in the morning. Wash off your makeup, prep your to do list and doing some meditation are simple things you can do the night before to give you stress free a.m. you’re aiming for. Just try not to overdo things. Just focus on the little things that count.
3. Turn off your phone
Waking up to emails or browsing news sites for sordid stories is not how you wake up stress free. That brief 2 hour period after you wake up should be dedicated to family and self. Anything else can wait. The part of you that is a mum is probably thinking what if there’s an emergency. Remind yourself that you are only capable of giving 100% if you are feeling 100%. And those unnecessary distractions only add more anxiety.
Am looking forward to updating this list from time to time with your own shared ideas but for starters let’s try out these three simple rules and tell me if you begin to find your mornings a lot more enjoyable!
